Kansas Chamber now hails tax-raising legislators

In 2010, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce targeted for defeat state lawmakers who supported a temporary sales tax increase. Yet last week it released its annual list of “Distinguished Pro-Jobs Legislators,” consisting mostly of lawmakers who voted this past session to raise the sales tax even higher – and make the increase permanent. The list included Rep. Mark Hutton, R-Wichita, who led an effort to roll back the state income tax exemption for about 330,000 business owners – which the chamber adamantly opposed. But such flip-flopping isn’t new. After the chamber campaigned in 2010 against lawmakers who “voted to impose higher taxes on job creators and families,” it announced early in the 2011 session that it opposed a proposed repeal of the tax increase. – Phillip Brownlee